On Saturday, I called 911 twice to report seven fires, six of which only appeared on a map yesterday! I called CalFire, the United States Forest Service (two ranger districts), the Humboldt County Sheriff Department, the Trinity County Sheriff Department, and our local volunteer fire department. I wanted to know what road I could take out of our valley if I needed to escape the firestorm. The response, “Ma’am, there are fires everywhere. We don’t know where they are or what roads are open.” I felt trapped, and we began putting dozer lines around our meadow, hooking up more sprinklers, and connecting fire hoses to the pump in our pond.

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Why do we need more money for the census? The money is needed because of a failed contract with the Harris Corporation for the 2010 counts. The Census Bureau had planned to use handheld computers, but the Florida-based contractor went over budget. Now, we have to return to a paper-based census, which will cost taxpayers more money. Instead of trying to take money from fisherman to pay for a failed contract, shouldn’t we reevaluate the census itself? Is it really necessary to complete this population count every ten years? Could we modify the count to every 15 or 20 years?

West Coast governors and congress men/women are upset at Bush’s proposal. In an angry letter to the president, Democrats Mike Thompson, Peter DeFazio, Darlene Hooley, Anna Eshoo, Jim McDermott, Brian Baird, Doris Matsui, Lois Capps, Lynn Woolsey, Earl Blumenauer, David Wu, Rick Larson, Sam Farr and Jay Inslee wrote:

This proposal is especially egregious when you consider that your administration’s water policies on all of the Pacific Northwest’s major salmon rivers are the reason this disaster funding is needed in the first place. These failed policies have resulted in over 80,000 dead adult salmon in the Klamath River, record low returns to the Sacramento and Columbia/Snake River systems, two fishery disaster declarations issued by the Secretary of Commerce and two years of fishing closures impacting thousands of families and small business.

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]]> http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/06/18/more-bad-news-from-a-lame-duck-president-bush-wants-to-steal-money-from-salmon-fisherman-for-2010-census/feed/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/06/16/price-of-oil-has-department-of-defense-looking-to-save-fuel/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/06/16/price-of-oil-has-department-of-defense-looking-to-save-fuel/#comments Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:30:12 +0000 Timothy B. Hurst http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/06/16/price-of-oil-has-department-of-defense-looking-to-save-fuel/ $1 per barrel increase in the price of oil costs U.S. $130 million

Whenever I’m involved in a discussion about government waste and/or the politics of bureaucratic budgeting, I undoubtedly recount a story that usually leaves people nodding in agreement or shaking their head in disbelief. The story goes like this: A friend of mine we’ll call “Rob,” whom I used to work with during my summer breaks, was coming back to Massachusetts for an unexpected late-September visit. Rob had relocated to Pensacola, Florida where he was learning how to fly jets at the Naval Flight Training School. As Rob lifted the golf clubs out of the nose of the fighter jet he had just flown from Florida to Massachusetts for a one-day visit, he knew his trip was different - and he was a little uneasy about it.

You see, Rob’s day-long visit to play golf in Massachusetts was made possible by an officer (or officers) who rightly feared that ending up with a surplus of fuel at the end of that fiscal year would slash the budget for fuel in the next. Rob’s little visit was back in the early 1990s, but with today’s skyrocketing fuel prices, and the added fuel demands of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the “largest single user of petroleum products in the world” is looking for ways to use less fuel - and more types of it.

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]]> http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/06/16/price-of-oil-has-department-of-defense-looking-to-save-fuel/feed/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/06/08/white-nose-syndrome-in-bats-stalls-wind-farm/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/06/08/white-nose-syndrome-in-bats-stalls-wind-farm/#comments Mon, 09 Jun 2008 03:07:57 +0000 Timothy B. Hurst http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/06/08/white-nose-syndrome-in-bats-stalls-wind-farm/ Feds suggest a delay in 3 projects so they can study dying bats

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service has sent a letter to to the developers of three wind farms in upstate New York strongly urging they consider other locations for their proposed projects. Biologists for the agency are concerned that the wind farms will further threaten imperiled bat populations suffering from an unprecedented die-off.

One of the wind energy developers, Iberdrola Renewables has decided to hold off on moving forward with the Horse Creek project until the impacts of white nose syndrome on bat populations are better understood. But developers of the other two projects have yet to make similar moves.

There is little known about the so-called “white nose syndrome,” so-named because of the white substance found on the face of the sick bats. The unexplained illness has killed of tens of thousands of small brown bats throughout the northeast over the past two winters. As temperatures warm and bats emerge from a winter of hibernation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has sent letters to three Jefferson County (NY) wind developers “strongly urging them to look at other places” for their proposed wind energy projects.

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]]> http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/06/08/white-nose-syndrome-in-bats-stalls-wind-farm/feed/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/06/04/schwarzenegger-declares-statewide-drought-orders-agencies-to-address-californias-urgent-water-needs/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/06/04/schwarzenegger-declares-statewide-drought-orders-agencies-to-address-californias-urgent-water-needs/#comments Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:29:59 +0000 Nayelli Gonzalez http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/06/04/schwarzenegger-declares-statewide-drought-orders-agencies-to-address-californias-urgent-water-needs/ California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought today, following two straight years of below-average rainfall, very low snowmelt runoff and the largest court-ordered water transfer restrictions of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in state history.

The governor also issued an Executive Order meant to address related problems caused by the water shortages, such as extreme fire danger due to dry conditions, economic harm to urban and rural communities, loss of crops and the potential to degrade water quality in some regions.”

For the areas in Northern California that supply most of our water, this March, April and May have been the driest ever in our recorded history,” Governor Schwarzenegger said during a press conference. “As a result, some local governments are rationing water, developments can’t proceed and agricultural fields are sitting idle. We must recognize the severity of the crisis we face.”

His order directs the Department of Water Resources and other entities to promote state and local conservation programs to reduce water consumption locally and regionally for the remainder of 2008 and prepare for potential worsening water conditions in 2009. The order also directs DWR to accelerate water transfers to shortage areas, pursue federal assistance and improve coordination between government agencies, identify risks to water supply and help farmers suffering losses.

Last month DWR released a final snow survey for the year that indicated snowpack water content was only at 67 percent the normal amount, and runoff was forecast at only 55 percent of the norm compared to previous years.”This drought is an urgent reminder of the immediate need to upgrade California’s water infrastructure,” the governor added. “There is no more time to waste because nothing is more vital to protect our economy, our environment and our quality-of-life. We must work together to ensure that California will have safe, reliable and clean water not only today but 20, 30 and 40 years from now.”

Photo: Office of the Governor

]]> http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/06/04/schwarzenegger-declares-statewide-drought-orders-agencies-to-address-californias-urgent-water-needs/feed/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/06/04/white-house-newsflash-global-warming-very-likely-caused-by-human/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/06/04/white-house-newsflash-global-warming-very-likely-caused-by-human/#comments Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:32:49 +0000 Jennifer Lance http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/06/04/white-house-newsflash-global-warming-very-likely-caused-by-human/ Since 1990, every four years the US government has been required to issue a “scientific” report on climate change and its effects on the economy, environment, and public health. In typical George W. Bush cavalier cowboy style, the 2004 deadline for this report was ignored and the government was sued by green groups. Finally, the long awaited report was released four years late, and get this:

…most of the recent global warming is very likely due to human generated increases in greenhouse gas concentrations.

Very likely caused by humans-now that’s a definitive statement on climate change! Once again the US government has failed to make a clearcut connection between humans and climate change.

Why do we need our government to make an absolute statement that humans are to blame for climate change?

Without such a strong statement linking the human causes and effects of global warming, we are impotent to pass real legislation and regulations that will drastically curb greenhouse gases now! We can’t wait four more years for the next report to come out to say, “Yea, we are screwed and entirely to blame.” A definitive statement by the US government would end the silly debate about global warming that has distracted us from taking action beyond individual citizens. As Rick Piltz, director of Climate Science Watch at the nonprofit Government Accountability Project, stated, “It’s important the government go on record honestly acknowledging this stuff.”

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]]> http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/06/04/white-house-newsflash-global-warming-very-likely-caused-by-human/feed/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/05/07/us-drug-war-policies-spur-sale-of-afghan-child/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/05/07/us-drug-war-policies-spur-sale-of-afghan-child/#comments Wed, 07 May 2008 12:32:30 +0000 Jennifer Lance http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/05/07/us-drug-war-policies-spur-sale-of-afghan-child/ The US Government’s Drug War has spurred many social and environmental consequences throughout the world. Widespread aerial herbicide spraying aimed at eradication has caused environmental damage from Central America to Central Asia. Recently, I learned you can add the sale of child brides in Afghanistan to the list of social ills caused by the Drug War.

A bumper crop of Afghan opium was produced in 2007, which is expected to be repeated in 2008. Despite these record poppy crops, farmers are deeply in debt. The average Afghan poppy grower’s per capita income is about $300, and farmers have to borrow money for seeds, fertilizer, food, and basic necessities from traffickers. The farmers are unable to pay their debts when their crops are eradicated, or they are pressured by local governments and westerners to stop growing. Westerners don’t keep promises to provide free seeds for substitute crops, and creditors demand child wives in payment for debts. The growers’ daughters are called “opium flowers“, and moneylenders seek them out in case of crop failure or family emergency.

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]]> http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/05/07/us-drug-war-policies-spur-sale-of-afghan-child/feed/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/05/06/mms-receives-40000-comments-on-cape-wind/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/05/06/mms-receives-40000-comments-on-cape-wind/#comments Tue, 06 May 2008 07:07:18 +0000 Timothy B. Hurst http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/05/06/mms-receives-40000-comments-on-cape-wind/ Agency permanently extends comment period for alt. energy leases

In the fall of 2001, Jim Gordon of Energy Management Inc. (EMI) announced his intentions to build a 420 megawatt wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts - the nation’s first. Now, the long permitting process that was made even longer by powerful opposition groups, is nearing resolution…finally.

More than 40,000 individuals and organizations have submitted comments on an environmental review of the wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound, according to an article in the Cape Cod Times.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” said Rodney Cluck, Cape Wind project manager for the U.S. Minerals Management Service, the lead federal agency to review Cape Wind Associates’ plan to build 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound, off the coast of Massachusetts. Originally, the comments were set to be released last Friday, but officials at the Minerals Management Service postponed the release to give agency staffers more time to organize the overwhelming public response to the proposed wind farm.

As a result of the scoping process’ popularity, the MMS announced that they would be preemptively extending the comment period for all of the remaining “Alternative Energy Leases” from 30 to 60 days.

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]]> http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/05/06/mms-receives-40000-comments-on-cape-wind/feed/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/05/03/mean-joe-green-8-the-800-pound-gorilla-is-biking-to-work/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/05/03/mean-joe-green-8-the-800-pound-gorilla-is-biking-to-work/#comments Sat, 03 May 2008 13:38:15 +0000 Joe Mohr http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/05/03/mean-joe-green-8-the-800-pound-gorilla-is-biking-to-work/ HG Wells said, “When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the human race.” I agree.

Hate rising gas prices? Ride your bike! In cities like Copenhagen and Amsterdam they seem to outnumber cars. Portland and Chicago are catching up. People of all ages, all over the world ride them daily to school, work, the store, a friend’s house…

It’s THE #1 solution to rising gas prices, yet our fearless leader won’t even mention it.

Stupid, weak, bicycle lobbying groups…

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]]> http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/05/03/mean-joe-green-8-the-800-pound-gorilla-is-biking-to-work/feed/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/28/is-the-epa-reaching-out/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/28/is-the-epa-reaching-out/#comments Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:47:12 +0000 Timothy B. Hurst http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/28/is-the-epa-reaching-out/ The Environmental Protection Agency has begun a “National Dialogue” about what information the public needs from the agency and how the agency can better provide that information.

Interested parties can now let the agency know what they think on EPA’s new interactive Web page (I’d love to a fly on that digital wall). Additionally, agency officials will be made available occasionally online for interactive chat sessions. The first of these was held last Thursday, when EPA’s chief information officer Molly O’Neill was made available for answering questions interactively online.

It is no secret that, under the Bush administration, the EPA has cut back on information available to the public through channels like the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) and the EPA libraries. The administration has also been under tremendous scrutiny for interference with EPA science on several separate occasions throughout the last seven years. And in a recent report published by the Union of Concerned Scientists, 900 employees of the EPA feel like their work has been interfered with for political reasons; sixty-percent of those who responded to the Union’s survey encountered some form of executive manipulation.

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]]> http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/28/is-the-epa-reaching-out/feed/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/16/the-war-on-global-warming/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/16/the-war-on-global-warming/#comments Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:24:59 +0000 Jennifer Lance http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/16/the-war-on-global-warming/ The US government likes to declare war on issues in which there are no clear enemies, while physically fighting undeclared wars against foreign people. President Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty. President Richard Nixon declared war on cancer and recreational drugs. Will George W. Bush declare war on climate change?

Tim Hurst wrote, “I would argue that the only opportunity the current president has to leave a positive and lasting legacy is to take ownership of the climate change and global warming issue” in response to rumors that Bush supports a new climate proposal. Could this be Bush’s declaration of war on climate change? I hope not, as the United States has failed to previously win a war on cancer, poverty, or drugs, and these wars have gone on for decades. We don’t have decades to solve the problem of climate change; we must do it now. Of course, when Bush is involved, I have to be skeptical of his true intentions, especially when the Associate Press reports the Bush administration is motivated to avoid a “train wreck” of climate change regulations. I suspect the Bush climate policy would be a watered down version of these other regulations, besides the White House may already be retreating on the issue.

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]]> http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/16/the-war-on-global-warming/feed/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/14/bush-just-says-no-to-science/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/14/bush-just-says-no-to-science/#comments Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:15:49 +0000 Timothy B. Hurst http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/14/bush-just-says-no-to-science/ Over the last 7 years, the current administration has meddled with the affairs of the Environmental Protection Agency to such a degree, that the badgering and tampering is having a detrimental effect on the morale of agency staffers. And the latest news that EPA officials have ceased their efforts to follow a Supreme Court order to propose regulations for carbon dioxide emissions from automobile tailpipes is, yet another, in a long list of examples where the Bush administration has overstepped its legal boundaries and asserted its political will in matters where it shouldn’t.

Even though EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson agreed with the court’s findings and proposed motor vehicle regulation to the Department of Transportation back in December, the agency has not evaluated dangers nor proposed any regulations - and is not expected to.

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]]> http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/14/bush-just-says-no-to-science/feed/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/11/mean-joe-green-5-big-oil-and-the-loggers-continue-to-play-to-a-sellout-crowd/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/11/mean-joe-green-5-big-oil-and-the-loggers-continue-to-play-to-a-sellout-crowd/#comments Sat, 12 Apr 2008 02:45:44 +0000 Joe Mohr http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/11/mean-joe-green-5-big-oil-and-the-loggers-continue-to-play-to-a-sellout-crowd/ …while Mother Nature plays the streets for chump change.

Even in this economic down turn, oil companies are still making record profits!

Is it sad that I dream of a day when we are exploited by the renewable energy industry?

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]]> http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/11/mean-joe-green-5-big-oil-and-the-loggers-continue-to-play-to-a-sellout-crowd/feed/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/07/federal-judge-blocks-uranium-mining-near-grand-canyon/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/07/federal-judge-blocks-uranium-mining-near-grand-canyon/#comments Mon, 07 Apr 2008 23:46:25 +0000 Timothy B. Hurst http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/07/federal-judge-blocks-uranium-mining-near-grand-canyon/ A federal judge has blocked a mining company from exploring for any further uranium near the grand Canyon. Several groups had sued the U.S. Forest Service for backing the plan without full environmental reviews. U.S. District Court Judge Mary Murguia of the U.S. District Court in Arizona issued a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction stopping the drilling late last week.

“The Grand Canyon is too important for the Forest Service to give short shrift to the possible and significant negative impacts of uranium mining exploration,” said Sandy Bahr, conservation outreach director for the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter. “The Forest Service should take a hard look at the impacts and the public should have an opportunity to review and comment on this mining exploration,” added Bahr.

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]]> http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/07/federal-judge-blocks-uranium-mining-near-grand-canyon/feed/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/06/mean-joe-green-4-afterall-they-do-it-to-the-native-americans/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/06/mean-joe-green-4-afterall-they-do-it-to-the-native-americans/#comments Mon, 07 Apr 2008 03:48:04 +0000 Joe Mohr http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/06/mean-joe-green-4-afterall-they-do-it-to-the-native-americans/ This cartoon popped in my head after reading colleague Tim Hurst’s article “Feds Issue Waiver of Environmental Rules for Border Fence” in Red Green and Blue last week.

Other motivation for this cartoon comes from the historical (and current) treatment of native Americans, and this unsourced quote from MAD Magazine: “The suburbs are where they cut down all the trees and then name the streets after them!”

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]]> http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/06/mean-joe-green-4-afterall-they-do-it-to-the-native-americans/feed/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/03/feds-issue-waiver-of-environmental-rules-for-border-fence/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/03/feds-issue-waiver-of-environmental-rules-for-border-fence/#comments Thu, 03 Apr 2008 19:01:07 +0000 Timothy B. Hurst http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/03/feds-issue-waiver-of-environmental-rules-for-border-fence/ Ecosystem will be severely fragmented by fence

The Bush administration has announced it will wave more than thirty federal laws to finish building a wall along the Mexican border by the end of this year. The Washington Post calls the move the most sweeping use of the administration’s waiver authority during the wall’s construction. The waivers allow the Bush administration to bypass mandatory reviews on how the wall will affect ecological areas in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. House Homeland Security Committee chair Bennie Thompson called the waiver “an extreme abuse of authority.”

Environmental groups have filed petitions challenging the waivers before the Supreme Court siting several potential ecological hazards that would be created by the fence. Biologists are especially concerned about a handful of extremely rare jaguars that prowl up from Mexico over mountain trails in some of the wildest country in the southwest.

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]]> http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/03/feds-issue-waiver-of-environmental-rules-for-border-fence/feed/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/01/bush-administration-seeks-endangered-species-protection-for-elusive-climate-skeptics/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/01/bush-administration-seeks-endangered-species-protection-for-elusive-climate-skeptics/#comments Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:58:12 +0000 Timothy B. Hurst http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/01/bush-administration-seeks-endangered-species-protection-for-elusive-climate-skeptics/

In a stunning reversal of direction, the Bush administration has officially requested a new addition to the Endangered Species list. What threatened species could elicit this drastic change of course for the Bush Administration? It is, of course, the elusive Climate Change Skeptic (dubium mundus fervesco), whose habitat is being threatened by rational thinking, increased rates of deforestation, low gas-mileage standards, and the abundance of “cheap” coal. The stunning news comes just after a story in the Washington Post reported that the current administration has never requested that an animal be protected by the Endangered Species Act. Of the current administration’s 59 listed species, none of them were requested by the administration themselves.

But the Bush administration is not alone in wanting to protect such skeptics as Fred Singer and Patrick Michaels, in fear that the breed may die out completely in the coming years. Fortunately, the skeptics have received significant funding from coal and oil companies, including ExxonMobil.

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]]> http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/04/01/bush-administration-seeks-endangered-species-protection-for-elusive-climate-skeptics/feed/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/03/24/tangled-up-in-green-green-makes-war-on-us-all/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/03/24/tangled-up-in-green-green-makes-war-on-us-all/#comments Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:26:10 +0000 Adam Bowman http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/03/24/tangled-up-in-green-green-makes-war-on-us-all/ Five years have gone by. The U.S. casualty toll is now 4,000. It is estimated that some 80,000 plus Iraqi civilians have lost their lives in the war.

Photo Courtesy of Luke Plunkett @ Kotaku.com

There isn’t a body count for wildlife, native plants, or eco-systems that have been killed in the struggle.

War takes a priceless toll on everything natural. Yet, nature may be the last thing that nations go to war over.

How long before we decide to protect the environment through force?

Can we go to war over the environment and still save it?

This may seem far fetched, but the possibility of an environmental war is already being discussed in the U.N.

“Ecological security must no longer be considered a luxury but rather an inextricable element of a durable peace policy,” states Klaus Topfer. He calls for international guarantees for protecting the environment similar to the Geneva Conventions, which protect the rights of prisoners and civilian populations in war. For ecological damage poses a threat greater than bombs to populations distressed by hunger, thirst, and disease.

If ecological damage is classified as such a great threat, could wars be declared to save the Amazon rain forest or Mediterranean fish populations?

Dr. Klaus Topfer, head of the U.N. environment program thinks that war is very likely. Perhaps not for the Spotted Owl. But as populations grow, natural resources are going to become more and more scarce. As nation’s need, war will likely occur.

Currently one quarter of the world’s population does not have access to clean water. If trends continue, Pakistan and China, both will be struggling to hydrate their populations. And a scary thing is they possess nuclear weapons. If push comes to shove for H2O, what would their options be?

To prevent this, we have to move away from our unsustainable systems. We need to use agencies like the U.N. to moderate, educate, and propagate nations towards an environmentally sustainable future. Not just for the birds and trees, but for our own survival.

We need to make our peace with green now.

]]> http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/03/24/tangled-up-in-green-green-makes-war-on-us-all/feed/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/03/21/tangled-up-in-green-the-five-years-war/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/03/21/tangled-up-in-green-the-five-years-war/#comments Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:01:25 +0000 Ranjit Arab http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/03/21/tangled-up-in-green-the-five-years-war/
[UPDATE: After posting this, I was introduced to a wonderful piece on the same topic written by A Siegel for his blog Energy Smart. Please be sure to check out his post, too--it contains lots of great information.]

We’ve got five years, stuck on my eyes
Five years, what a surprise
We’ve got five years, my brain hurts a lot
Five years, that’s all we’ve got

Okay, so maybe the above David Bowie lyric was about alien invasion and the impending end of humankind as we know it, but it’s been playing on a loop inside my head ever since Wednesday, when we “celebrated” the fifth anniversary of our war in Iraq.

Five years. My brain definitely hurts a lot.

While the current administration will have us believe that the surge is working and that stability has returned to once volatile regions, the truth is probably closer to a “whack-a-mole” strategy that shows no signs of leading to a peaceful resolution for this ongoing nightmare.

A majority of Americans now say this war was a mistake, and we continue to hear reports—be it from the peripheries—of civilian lives lost, soldiers’ lives lost, soldiers injured, vets suffering from PTSD, tax dollars spent, etc. Still, perhaps one of the greatest casualties of this war gets very little mention.

I’m speaking, of course, of the environment.

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]]> http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/03/21/tangled-up-in-green-the-five-years-war/feed/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/03/20/us-law-complicates-canadian-oilsands/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/03/20/us-law-complicates-canadian-oilsands/#comments Thu, 20 Mar 2008 18:15:04 +0000 Maria Surma Manka http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/03/20/us-law-complicates-canadian-oilsands/ When the U.S. Congress passed the Energy Independence and Security Act last December, the bill included a passage that could effect Canada’s oilsands, and that has the Canadian government nervous.

The law prohibits federal procurement of fuels that produce more global warming emissions than conventional sources. Canada is concerned because the fuel taken from the oilsands is considered alternative fuel under the new energy act and it produces more global warming emissions than other sources. It complicates things because U.S. firms have major investments in the oilsands and the U.S. government currently gets a lot of fuel from there, so the U.S. essentially passed a law that could jeopardize this arrangement. In the province of Alberta, the oilsands represent the second largest oil reserve on the planet after Saudi Arabia.

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